I’m an entrepreneur practicing intrapreneruship to benefit entrepreneurs. Sounds weird, right? To explain, I’m Product Marketing Manager for Sage One North America, a cloud accounting and invoicing app for small businesses and owner of Indie Peace, an organic cotton apparel company that's grown and sewn in the USA. I’m blessed to be in a unique position where I can support my life goal of helping small businesses in any way possible. Joining forces with the Sage One team who share the common goal has also given me the opportunity to help bring more attention to intrepreneurship and how powerful it can be in addressing small business challenges while supporting company goals.My journey also includes working for the Big Four advising Fortune 500 companies, becoming a professional photographer for 4 years, and creating a home networking company.Discussing small business challenges and providing actionable information on how to uniquely address them is my focus.

Before You Launch Your Crowdfunding Campaign, Read This

Need to start or grow your business? Crowdfunding is an attractive alternative to traditional funding. Take it from music legend Neil Young who blew away his crowdfunding goal of $2.4 million in just one day! Sure, star power was likely what kicked this Kickstarter up a notch so quickly, but crowdfunding is hot – and continues to make positive impacts to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Crowdfunding has, in a very short time, revolutionized the way startups fund projects, but it’s not a magic bullet. The key to success, no matter where you seek funding, is directly linked to the amount of work you put into your idea – and that happens long before you launch your campaign. Ask all the right questions when you’re working on your plan. What problem does my product or service solve? Who will care about it? How much money do I need today to fund my project?

As with traditional fundraising models, there will be challenges, but if you do your homework – plan the work and work the plan – the positives will far outweigh any roadblocks you encounter.

To illustrate the magnitude of crowdfunding – and its impact on the global economy over time – here’s something to think about:1

If just 2% of the $30 trillion in the U.S. long-term investment capital were placed into startups, it would be 10 times greater than the amount angels and VCs invest annually.

That same 2% would equal 100% of small business bank loans outstanding today in the U.S.

80% of pentamillionaires in the U.S. are entrepreneurs who sold their business.

That is powerful! Crowdfunding is not only putting the power of fundraising into the hands of the people, but it’s permanently changing the financial ecosystem.

Where reaching out to a bank for financing used to be status quo, many small businesses believe that banks aren’t doing enough to help and I agree 100%. According to the Sage Small Business Index, 67% of small businesses are looking at alternative sources of funding. While some look to friends and family for investment, platforms like KickStarter, IndieGoGo, Kiva, Peerbackers, and Fundable are making it possible for SMBs to leverage the power of the crowd in their growth.

The SEC is in the process of approving the last part of the 2011 JOBS Act, which would allow smaller investors to purchase shares of a company instead of just receiving gifts for their investment. Although this portion of the law, called Title III, is still being finalized, the crowdfunding revolution is here to stay.

What’s really interesting is that some states have enacted their own legislation, allowing an exemption for “intrastate” crowdfunding and several states (including Georgia, Michigan and Washington) are taking action to actively shape the industry to suit today’s needs.

Three Must Haves in Your Crowdfunding Strategy

If you have a great idea, or think you do, crowdfunding may be the way to go – but you have to get buy-in from your audience. (And this is true, no matter what kind of fundraising model you use!)

Even if a person’s investment is small, you need to take steps to ensure you have all the important elements in place before approaching investors – or launching a campaign.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Perfect your message.

“The most important aspect of explaining your product isn’t around the benefits, it’s around the problem it solves,” says Wil Schroter of Fundable. Schroter advises to start with the problem, explain your solution and then verify the market size in your pitch to frame the situation for investors.

For example, Jessica Mathews was born in Nigeria, an area like much of Africa that is still without reliable power. In her pitch on Fundable, which is an amazing example of how to crowdfund, she explained that over 1.4 billion people are without access to power – and so she created the Soccket, a soccer ball that stores kinetic energy when you kick it that can be used as a clean source of energy for small appliances. With soccer being such a popular sport around the world, the idea of having three hours of a power for just 30 minutes of play is appealing.

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